Canada had been operating some flights for UTA in 1989 during the period where UTA Flight 772 was destroyed inflight. Accidents and incidents Nationair Canada operated a number of sub-contracts all over the world, including Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 for Nigeria Airways which crashed at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 11 July 1991, killing all 261 on board, including 14 Canadian aircrew. It was and remains the worst aviation disaster involving a Canadian airline and a McDonnell Douglas DC-8. The cause of the crash was found to be under-inflated tyres, which in turn caused overheated tyres to catch fire, and failure of hydraulic systems and eventual in-flight break-up of the aircraft short of making an emergency landing. The safety of the airline was often called into question but the president, Robert Obadia, vehemently denied the accusations. Eventually, it would be discovered that the airline often flew aircraft that were unairworthy, and that Transport Canada knew this, but did nothing about it, "losing" a safety review that cast the airline in a negative light. It was later found that the aircraft that crashed in Saudi Arabia had been unairworthy for several days prior to the crash, and that staff had altered documentation in order for the flight to depart on time. In an interview for an episode of Mayday covering the accident, Nolisair executive William Fowler opined that the project managers Nolisair assigned to charter operations, including Flight 2120 victim Aldo Tetamenti, had unintentionally degraded safety culture by placing excessive pressure on maintenance crews. By the time it was publicly disclosed that the cause of the crash was negligence on the part of the company, it had already undergone bankruptcy and dissolution for several years. Bankruptcy The aircrash, combined with Nationair Canada's poor reputation for on-time service and mechanical problems led to serious problems with public image and reliability among tour operators. These difficulties were compounded when Nationair Canada locked out its unionized flight attendants and proceeded to replace them with strikebreakers on November 19, 1991. The lockout lasted 15 months and by the time it ended in early 1993, Nationair Canada found itself in severe financial trouble, and filed for bankruptcy protection. The company went bankrupt in the spring of 1993 after it was discovered that it owed the government millions of dollars in unpaid landing fees. Creditors began seizing airplanes and demanded cash up front for services. The company was